Common Core
For Year 1 Student Intake from 2024 onwards, Year 2 Student Intake from 2025, & Senior Year Student Intake from 2026 onwards
The Common Core aims to provide students with a fundamental and indispensable knowledge base to develop analytical and critical thinking abilities, artificial intelligence literacy, and to make historically and scientifically informed judgments. This framework encourages students to make interdisciplinary connections and develop a well-rounded education.
The 5 Common Core courses are designed to be taken in a structured sequence to promote progressive development of foundational skills and knowledge. In the 1st year of study, students learn about the processes of thinking and reflection in the course “Critical Thinking: Analysis and Argumentation”; develop versatile, real-world skills and recognise their social responsibility in the course “Generative Artificial Intelligence”; and acquire an understanding of Hong Kong society’s uniqueness and its cross-border, cross-cultural connections in the course “The Making of Hong Kong”. In the 2nd year, students expand their critical thinking skills by understanding quantitative methods and the scientific processes in the course “The Process of Science”, and expand their social framework through a historical examination of China’s global role in the course “China in World History”.
The Common Core has the dual role of helping students develop skills and obtain knowledge. The skills that are developed (query, investigation, evaluation, analysis, and communication) are used in all fields of study. Additionally, the knowledge students gain of Hong Kong and China, global dynamics, and mechanisms of change in both the human and the natural worlds forms a framework to help them interpret the various circumstances that shape their lives. This combination of skills and knowledge is relevant to and a prerequisite for advanced coursework in all major programmes.